Boiling Springs – After a midnight session late Monday night, which included a fitness and conditioning test, the Gardner-Webb men’s soccer team kicked off its 2013 preseason practice slate on Tuesday morning, hitting the pitch at 9:30 a.m. for the team’s first full practice.

Head Coach Tony Setzer, who is in his 26th season at the helm of the Runnin’ Bulldog men’s soccer program, is once again excited about yet another preseason.

“I am excited just to get started,” commented Setzer. “There is always a new season, that brings new optimism and we are excited to see everything get started.”

The Runnin’ Bulldogs look to bounce back from a disappointing season in terms of wins and losses in 2012, as GWU posted four wins overall, three of which came in Big South Conference play.

“The goals for the year, we want to actually improve on last year. I mean last year we were abysmal in front of the goal as we only scored 13 goals last year,” Setzer continued. “So we definitely want to improve in that area. I thought we were pretty decent defensively for the woes that we lacked to be able to put pressure on people in the attack, so I hope to strengthen the defense as we brought in some really nice players to be able to bolster what we already have and augment what we have. And hopefully the veterans after going through a year of struggleswill be hungry to set the ship right.”

The veterans that return for the Runnin’ Bulldogs in 2013 include key performers in senior Marius Hammersmark, redshirt-senior Satoshi Tatsumi, juniors Denzel Clarke, Jonas Nader, Eric Yeager and Matt Bogart, who have all seen the pitch in double digit contests over the last three seasons.

Fellow returners Craig Swaby, Bryce Wells, C.J. Moore, Brooks Asger, Kevin Comvalius, Riley Shelton and Jake Kennedy all return after seeing minutes last season at a number of different positions, while a handful of newcomers will look to add depth to a team that graduated two four-year starters in Jon Ole Reinhardsen and John Sargent and two three-year starters in Chris Davis and Scott Krotee, as well as its 2012 leading scorer in Taylor Jordan.

The Runnin’ Bulldogs will have only five full days of practice before its first exhibition contest of the season, as GWU will take on UNC Greensboro on the road on Saturday, August 17th, at 7 p.m. in Greensboro, N.C.

After back-to-back exhibition contests at home versus Catawba (Aug. 20, 7 p.m.) and Lenoir-Rhyne (Aug. 24, 7 p.m.), the Runnin’ Bulldogs will kick-off its 2013 regular season slate on August 30th againstWofford at the Big South/SoCon Challenge in Statesboro, Ga.